congresswoman gabby giffords even returned to washington from rehab from her almost fatal gunshot wound just to vote for the bill. and while the experience left everyone bitter, democrats and republicans also promised to work extra hard, as they said, to get our fiscal house in order. if only because the law they just passed made it crazy not to. well, call them crazy. no progress before the election campaign began. no progress during the campaign. then more recently, house speaker john boehner and president obama each made important concessions. the president on entitlement spending. speaker boehner on upper income tax rates. speaker boehner, though, could not get conservative republicans to go along and seemed at a loss for what to do next. >> we can't cut our way to prosperity. we need real economic growth. many of us believe on both sides of the aisle on the fundamental reform of our tax code will help us get our economy moving faster and put more americans back to work. and more americans on the tax rolls. how we get there, god only knows. >> president obama, meantime, seemed to lo